The Saginaw Spirit found themselves in action twice last week (March 11-17), splitting their games while having a couple of players reach career milestones.
Weekly Results
- March 15 at Guelph: 5-4 OTW (47-15-1-1)
- March 16 at Erie: 5-4 L (47-16-1-1)
Late Game Heroics Work Only Once
In both games the Spirit played this last week, they found themselves trailing late in the game. Against the Guelph Storm, they broke through and tied the game with five seconds remaining in regulation and eventually won in overtime. But in losing to the Erie Otters, they found their late-game comeback falling short.
As they head toward the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) playoffs and eventually the Memorial Cup, the team will need to get themselves in a better position not to have to come with late-game heroics to bail out a “slower” start to their game. While it has worked throughout the regular season, they will be playing tougher competition in both the playoffs and the Memorial Cup and will find it harder to get themselves out of a deficit. With the skillset the team has with trade deadline acquisitions Owen Beck and Zayne Parekh, among others, the team should be able to find themselves in a better position earlier in games.
Misa, Parekh, and Christopoulus Reach Milestones
While led by a strong core of players, including Michael Misa, Parekh, and Alex Christopoulos, the 2023-24 regular season has seen plenty of milestones. This trend continued over the last week as each of these three players reached either career milestones or set franchise records.
Related: Catching Up with Saginaw Spirit Defenseman Zayne Parekh
As one of a select few who has earned exceptional status from the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), Misa has had eyes on him from the beginning after being selected by the Spirit first overall in the 2022 OHL Draft. While Parekh has gained plenty of attention with his historic season in his draft year, Misa has had a strong season that has mainly flown under the radar. Over the weekend, he reached the 50-goal mark in his career in his 108th game. He became the fourth fastest to do so as an exceptional status player. He ranks ahead of Connor McDavid (116 games) and sits behind the Seattle Kraken’s Shane Wright, John Tavares, and Connor Bedard on the list. With his play becoming more prevalent lately (three points in the two games over the weekend) and his continued development, Misa continues to find himself being talked about as one…
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